Well... perhaps
“normal” was never in the cards for her. As she questions her own sanity and
spirals out of control, a man appears on her doorstep and tells her that, like
him, she’s a witch.

Pulled in all
directions, her unbridled magic draws dangerous attention and Jade wonders if
she’s made the worst mistake of her life by joining a coven, or if she’ll even
live long enough to regret it.

Excerpt
from Trial By Fire (Covencraft #1) by Margarita Gakis, available at Amazon.

Jade
shrugged and looked around the medical area.

“I
sent Callie home. Your testing is next and it’s best to have no other witches
about when it occurs.” Paris answered her unspoken question.

“What
about you guys?” Jade asked, gesturing to the doctor and the coven leader.

“Oh,
I’m not a witch,” Dr. Gellar said. “I just work for the Coven.”

Jade
looked at Paris as he spoke. “Part of the test involves your power being tested
against another witch. I’ll be testing your power with mine.” He smiled
benignly at her.

“Is
it going to be like the other night, when you were trying to kill my fire?” she
asked, wary. Thinking about the sick, heavy feeling that had permeated her
chest and stomach made Jade wrinkle her nose in distaste. Paris made a waffling
motion with his head and looked uncertain.

“Possibly,”
he admitted.

At
least he’s honest, she thought.

Dr.
Gellar motioned Jade over to one of the chairs in the public area. “If you would
like to have a seat over there, we can begin your power testing. I’m going to
attach some electrodes to your head, neck and a few of your fingertips and then
we can begin.”

The
room was silent as the doctor connected Jade to the monitoring equipment. Jade
released her hair from her ponytail and shook it out, knowing it was probably
in a huge halo around her head. She wasn’t one of those women who could take
their hair down and have it look like she stepped from the pages of a magazine.
Out of the ponytail, her hair curved along a huge wave from where the elastic
sat. It puffed from her head like a lion’s mane. Gellar clipped more sensors to
Jade’s fingertips, and put a few on the side of her neck. Jade tugged at a few
of the electrodes and poked at the machine they were attached to until Dr.
Gellar rolled it out of her reach.

“Try
to remain still, Jade,” the doctor admonished.

Jade
snatched her hand away and leaned back in her seat, tapping her foot on the
marble floor.

“Completely
still,” Dr. Gellar said without even looking over at her.

Feeling
churlish, Jade stuck her tongue out at her and then felt like an idiot for
doing it, but it was too late. She slunk lower in her seat.

“Okay,”
Dr. Gellar said as she made one final adjustment to the machine, “now we can
begin. Paris tells me that you’ve already been able to generate fire?”

“Yeah.”

“I
want you to try again now.”

Jade
held her hand out at elbow level and immediately a blue flame appeared in the
center of it. Eyes wide, the doctor tilted her head sharply at Jade’s palm and
then glanced at Paris.

“I
know,” he said. “She has a knack for that one.”

Dr.
Gellar raised her eyebrows but didn’t say anything as she made a few notes on a
clipboard. Jade craned her head over to the side to see if she could read it
but it was too far away.

The
doctor returned her attention to Jade. “Can you extinguish it?”

As
soon as she was done asking the question, the flame winked out with an audible
puff. Dr. Gellar made additional notes.

“And
bring it back.”

The
flame sprung up in front of Jade again, only this time, she didn’t even raise
her hand. The flame just floated softly in front of her at chest height.

“Jade,
would you be able to change its shape?” asked Paris.

She
shrugged. “I guess.”

Thinking
about the tiny flame caused it to dance a bit and she could feel the shape of
it in her brain. She pulled at it, twisting it, getting a feel for it and then
stretched it out and shaped it. She thought about a triangle and then discarded
that idea immediately for a pyramid. The flame flickered into a flat triangle
and then quickly folded in on itself and settled as a pyramid, keeping up with
her thoughts. She rubbed her fingertips together and, feeling a rough edge
along one of her cuticles, turned her focus away from the flame in front of her
and looked down at her nail. When she glanced back up at the pyramid, it was
rotating lazily in front of her, like a gyroscope, in three dimensions. She
looked over at Dr. Gellar who was staring from Jade to the flame to the
machines with interest.

“Anything
else?” Jade asked.

Dr.
Gellar came to stand in front of her. “You can extinguish your fire again,
Jade.” As it dissipated, she held out both hands toward Jade, a small object in
each. Her right hand held a tiger eye stone, the left held a small gold coin.

“One
of these objects has been charmed.” Dr. Gellar stated plainly. “Can you tell
which one?”

Jade
looked at the items in the doctor’s hands and although she didn’t know why, she
immediately pointed at the coin. Surprising herself, she raised her eyes to the
doctor, who nodded and put the stone in her pocket.

She
handed the coin to Jade. “What can you tell me about this?”

Jade
took the coin and turned it over in her fingers. The top of her knuckles
tingled slightly. She rested the coin on the top of her fingers, in the soft
skin between her pinky and ring finger. The coin rolled easily from knuckle to
knuckle, flipping itself over. She moved her fingers slightly, letting the coin
flip itself over, running back and forth across the top of her hand.

“It
was charmed so it won’t fall off,” she stared down at the flickering gold.
Then, turning to Paris, she asked, “How do I know that?”

“Magic
lingers, gives off an energy,” he said as though it was a response she would
fully understand.

Margarita loves the
art, creativity and romanticism of storytelling. Sometimes, however, the act of
putting pen to paper proves challenging, elusive. She develops genuine,
relatable characters which grow in the hearts of her readers. From that
foundation, the stories flourish into a warm friend.

She enjoys pursuits
which blur the lines between the analytical and creative sides of her brain.
This includes her day job in electronic data management, where she uses her
creativity to solve logical problems, and also her lessons learning to play the
cello, where she finds beauty in the structure of music and the instrument. She
believes there is a place for both logic and imagination to work together. When
they do, the results are magical.

Margarita has a
special spot in her heart for dogs and lives with three of them. It can be a
little overwhelming but the quality snuggle time makes up for it.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

A fresh, original blend of urban fantasy, legal thriller, and workplace drama—with a heroine you won’t soon forget!

BOXOFFICEPOISON by Phillipa Bornikova

“Bornikova accurately depicts Hollywood with warmth and wit, her puzzles will keep readers guessing until the end, and she tops it off with a smart, sassy heroine

willing to poke and prod those more powerful than she. Refreshingly different, intriguing and involving:

A sequel that’s even better than the splendid opener.”

-Kirkus Reviews, starred review for BOXOFFICEPOISON

“The feisty and indomitable Linnet Ellery is back, and her second outing is a well-plotted, continuously intriguing story that delivers on every level.

Bornikova excels at blending the paranormal elements of her stories with the mundane realities of daily life and workplace politics, making a world that’s

instantly recognizable and delightfully dark and complex. The chemistry between her main characters and the continued hints about

Linnet’s secrets heighten the anticipation for the evolution of this series even before the final page.”

-RT Book Reviews for BOXOFFICEPOISON

“..lots of fun, and I’m looking forward to finding out more about Linnet and her world.”

-Locus Magazine for BOXOFFICEPOISON

TITLE:BOXOFFICEPOISON

Author: Phillipa Bornikova

$24.99 / 320 pages

What happens when exquisitely beautiful elves start getting all the roles in Hollywood? Human actors sue, that’s what and the Halls of Power have to step in. In Phillipa Bornikova’s BOXOFFICEPOISON (A Tor Hardcover; On Sale August 6, 2013; $24.99),law, finance, the military, and politics are under the sway of long-lived vampires, werewolves, and the elven Alfar. In a desperate attempt to keep the squabbling inside the Screen Actors Guild from going public, the president of SAG forces the two sides into arbitration.

Enter Linnet Ellery, a human lawyer working for a vampire law firm, to serve as arbitrator. Linnet discovers that there are sinister forces at work in Tinsel Town determined to shatter the fragile peace between elves, vampires, werewolves, and humans. To complicate matters, it seems that something has been coercing famous elven actors into committing sudden and terrible acts of violence that they claim to have no memory of.

During the course of her investigations Linnet realizes that a puzzling secret surrounds her, and that a strange power has been affecting the very course of her life. . . .

A new flavor of urban fantasy,BOXOFFICEPOISON is a legal thriller plus supernatural action, with a clever and gutsy heroine you will cheer for as she uses the power of the law and her personal sense of justice to save the day.

PHILLIPA BORNIKOVA has been the story editor of a major network television series, a horse trainer, and an oil-company executive. She lives in the Southwest.

Picking up this book on my first day of vacation is like a breath of fresh air. Box Office Poison is a book you fall into and the rest of the world falls away. Urban fantasy is one of my favorite genres and Phillipa Bornikova has outdone herself with the vampire politics and supernatural elements. I can't wait to sit down and read more, but even the first few pages have given me a collective sigh of happiness. High emotional impact, characters you can literally sink your teeth into and a plot that I know is going to keep me up into the late hours of the evening (hurray vacation!)

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Synopsis for GIRL Z: My Life as a Teenage Zombie:

Sixteen-year-old Rebecca Herrera Hayes' life changes forever
when her cousin Spence comes back to their small Wisconsin town carrying a
deadly secret—he's becoming a zombie, a fate he shares with her through an
accidental scratch.

The Z infection, however, has mutated, affecting younger
persons like her, or those treated early enough, differently. Now she must cope
with weird physical changes and habits no girl wants to be noticed for.

But time is running out... Becca needs the help of her
friends and other cousin to fight off hungry zombies and find their missing
mothers.

Most of all, she needs to find something, anything, to stop
this deadly transformation before it is forever too late...

I tuned back in to the doctor's explanation…new diet, pills,
blah-blah-blah…and let his words fade
again into the background.

Gone was the golden tan I'd nurtured over the summer with
tanning cream and hours sunbathing by the pool with one of my cousins. My skin
had a weird grayish tone, like I'd rubbed myself with fireplace ash.

I gazed at my legs, now mottled with strange gray blotches,
and my pretty pink toenails peeking out from beneath the sheet.

The machine next to me made a frantic beep-beep.

I turned and caught my reflection in the metal canister
sitting on the table next to the bed. Whimpering, I rubbed a hand over my
cheek, wondering at the scaly texture, while at other times I felt almost
nothing.

Like most everyone else, I got hooked on The Walking Dead,
but I've long been a horror, monster, and zombie fan. (Night of the Living
Dead, Dawn of the Dead). But I wanted to do a story from the point of view of
someone who is part-zombie and part-human yet.

2. What is your favorite character from the book and why?

Only one? I love my main character, Becca. She's sassy,
funny, and not always sure of herself, but that's okay. She finds her way. But
her cousin, Carm, is no pushover, either.

3. Tell us about your favorite three zombie movies and TV
shows.

I loved Zombieland. Fun and funny.

Typical, yeah, I really like The Walking Dead.

And... there's still something fascinating about re-watching
the original Night of the Living Dead.

4. What five things would you want with you in a zombie
apocalypse?

Funny thing is I'm not a weapons fan, but in that world it's
a necessity. So: gun, huge knife , baseball bat, flame thrower, and it might be
impractical, but gotta have my dog.

5. Cheeseburger or sushi?

Burger, but I like Turkey.

6. Favorite ice cream?

Anything chocolate.

7. Plotter or panster?

I plot and outline, but do get different ideas to add while
I write.

8. What must you have on your writing desk?

Notebooks. I like to write ideas down longhand.

9. What are you working on next?

A horror book with a historical figure and a GIRL Z sequel,
along with assorted short stories.

About Me

Dana Wright has always had a fascination with things that go bump in the night. She is often found playing at local bookstores, trying not to maim herself with crochet hooks or knitting needles, watching monster movies with her husband and furry kids or blogging about books. More commonly, she is chained to her computers, writing like a woman possessed. She is currently working on several children's stories, young adult fiction, short stories and is trying her hand at poetry. She is a contributing author to Ghost Sniffer’s CYOA, Siren’s Call E-zine in their “Women in Horror” issue in February 2013 and "Revenge" in October 2013, a contributing author to Potatoes! (upcoming), Fossil Lake, Undead in Pictures, Potnia, a funny ghost story anthology by Crushing Hearts Black Butterfly Press, Dark Harvest,Wonderstruck, Shifters: A Charity Anthology, Holiday Horrors and the Roms, Bombs and Zoms Anthology from Evil Girlfriend Media. Dana has also reviewed music for Muzikreviews.com specializing in New Age and alternative music and has been a contributing writer to Eternal Haunted Summer, Nightmare Illustrated, Massacre Magazine, Pagan Living Magazine, The Were Traveler October 2013 edition: The Little Magazine of Magnificent Monsters, the December 2013 issue The Day the Zombies Ruled the Earth. She currently reviews music at New Age Music Reviews and Write a Music Review.